A comprehensive guide to every UK-based venture capital firm in the UK

Welcome to the Growth Business UK venture capital directory, a comprehensive guide to every British VC investing in start-ups and scaleups.

• Assets under management
• Current investments
• Ticket size
• Current investments
• Exits
• Sectors invested in
• Key portfolio companies

Despite Brexit, the UK has the second most active and capital-intensive venture capital market in the world, with £22bn of venture capital deployed in 2022. Only the US outstrips it, and particularly the San Francisco Bay Area.

London makes up the larger share of the total venture capital investment, driving 70 per cent of total investment in 2022.

Yet VC investment into UK businesses fell by nearly one third in 2022 and that slump has continued in the first quarter of 2023 with £2.9bh raised by UK businesses in the opening three months of the year compared with £12.3bn raised in Q1 2022.

And the number of new VCs being founded in Britain has dropped 2021, reflecting a wider European slowdown in new venture capital firms opening their doors. Partly this has been because of economic uncertainty and war in Europe, and also the inherently risky nature of backing founders. Almost one in five European start-ups backed by venture capital go bust.

Yet the doors are always open for the right startup, one which is ready to disrupt the market, and ideally do some social good at the same time, whether that’s climate change or democratising something privileged.

Indeed, having spoken to many VCs, the biggest stumbling block is lack of ambition for founders, or bringing pitches to VCs which are not big enough to warrant that fabled 10x return they are looking for – turning you into that fabled unicorn.